Tales of Vladivostok
by Bravo Zver
Summary: Vladivostok housed the only Mk I Jaeger to survive until the end of the Kaiju war. Under the watch of Sasha and Aleksis Kaidonovsky the costal wall went unbreached for six years during a time when jaegers fell as fast as they were built. Their names were carved into history as one of the final casualties in the Kaiju war, but it wasn't the battle of Hong Kong that made them heroes.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own anything you may recognize.

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April 25th 2015

It was so hard to believe it was April if you looked at a thermometer. Most people didn't bother looking. There were possibly six weeks out of the year where the temperature broke past the teens in Siberia, so parkas and boots were everyday attire out in the frozen wasteland, hundreds of miles from civilization where the thermometer never got above freezing in the hottest summers. The isolation from civilization and harsh temperatures made it a perfect place to throw the lawbreakers. Several prisons dotted the arctic wasteland, each simply bearing a number. If an inmate got lucky and made it past the guards and their automatic rifles, the two hundred pound dogs, and survived the harsh terrain the chances of making the three hundred mile trek back into the nearest town were nonexistent. Escapes, therefore, were a rare problem in Prison Camp 34, though that's not to say the prisoners were totally docile at all times. No, these ladies all deserved their incarceration, and proved it too, sometimes on just one another. The chaos provided the less outwardly hostile inmates with entertainment at least, such as Ren Kotko and her cellmate Vera Vorbansk.

Cynicism became Ren and Vera's past time and catalyst for friendship, the form friendship took while incarcerated in a Siberian prison camp at least. They would gossip and make snide remarks about pretty much everything, even going so far as to compare murders in the more intimate moments the two shared. Currently they were lounging about in their cell with Ren sitting against the wall facing the bars and Vera sitting beside her, watching the guards pass them by.

Sasha was here today, her short stature standing out amongst the burly guards, as well as her bright red lipstick. Sasha's refusal to hide her femininity didn't mean she was out of place here though. Ren had personally witnessed the guard reach into a cell to grab an inmate and yank her into the bars that separated them hard enough to put the inmate on her ass. It was to break up a fight she and her cellmate were having, but Ren respected her work. Most guards would just point their guns at you and scream until the inmates obeyed. Sasha preferred to bust an ass or two and let the knowledge that she wasn't afraid of any inmate spread from cell to cell. Vera was almost certain Sasha and another of the guards were dating, claiming to have seen Sasha drag one of the bigger men into a restroom once. She didn't see them leave, their yard time being up before she got the chance, but she swore she saw two guards go in there. Ren thought she was full of shit.

Ren kept on watching as more guards passed them by and noticed another familiar, if unwanted, face…Valery. His mere presence caused her face to sink in disgust. Every prisoner knew him to be a pervert, and more than a few of the inmates claimed he'd assaulted them. Sometimes it was just a beating. The thought made Ren sick that the bastard was walking around on the other side of those bars. She knew she deserved to be locked up, but she still had rules, and Valery was scum preying on the somewhat helpless. Ren always took note when Valery was in the prison. She didn't trust the bastard. The convict wasn't the type to care what happened to the other women, but Vera was an exception. Vera and Ren had each other's back, but neither wanted a fight with the guards; few inmates with a functional brain did.

"You see that sack of shit wink when he walked by?" Ren asked, looking Vera in the eyes as her friend shuddered before smirking. Looking Vera in the eyes was normally impossible for Ren, the brunette only coming up to Vera's neck. It was hard to get under Vera's skin, unless you were dumb enough to bust up her cousin's food truck just because you can't handle your booze.

"Don't worry, most of his friends are off the guard shift for a few months. I'm not exactly going to turn my back on him you know." Vera replied as she winked at Ren, who smirked in return before punching her friend in the arm. "Cause you know I've got your back. Don't worry, so long as you're my bitch I'm not letting anyone else take you under the sheets."

The statement was followed by Ren's nervous laughter. '_I might have to write my brother about this soon before something does happen.' _Ren thought. Vera apparently saw the concern in her friend's normally cold blue eyes and gave her a gentle smile, then promptly elbowed her in the boob.

"Cut it out. You might make me actually worried if you don't let up about it. So he winked at me, who the hell cares? It's not like he's got his dick poking through the bars or anything. If he does that I'll kick it back out. Problem solved." Vera said confidently as Ren rubbed where Vera had elbowed her, glaring at the woman.

She was probably right. Valery probably flirted with everyone like this at one point or another, and this just happened to be the first of it Vera's gotten from him. No big deal when you thought about it. Problem was, Ren was thinking more about the inmates she'd heard the stories from. Ren sighed before standing up off of the concrete floor, doing a few squats to get the blood flowing in her legs again.

"Yeah, you're probably right Vera. I just hear conversations in the mess hall about that fucker. Stuff gets to you when you hear it for years I guess," she calmly said, still occasionally glancing at the bars to make sure Valery hadn't doubled back. She was hiding her paranoia for Vera's sake now, but you don't survive long in prison by trusting people, especially the guards.

Vera nodded in response and got to her feet as well, studying Ren as she tried to figure out if her friend was feeding her a line or not. It was always hard to tell with Ren, her eyes nearly always cold and distant. The only time they changed was when she got angry or when Vera coaxed a laugh out of her. From what Vera saw of the athletically built woman outside of their cell, she was very standoffish to everyone. She'd beaten an inmate over the head with a lunch tray for 'looking at her too hard,' yet Vera could call her an ass goblin and the two would laugh over it. Vera knew where she stood with Ren but that was about all she really knew about her cellmate.

* * *

Sasha found it hard to accept that the apocalypse was finally here. It was difficult to accept that the giant monsters from the cheesy stop motion films growing up would be how it would all end. It would even be kind of funny if it weren't so very real and happening every five or six months. Four Kaiju had sprung from the Pacific now and each had rampaged for days before nukes finally took them down. That was a horrifying thought in and of itself, really. Those missiles could destroy entire cities, cripple a country with a well-placed shot. Kaiju took two or three nukes to drop them. But what other options were there? How do you fight a force of nature like that? Sasha had no idea, but she knew that it had been a good four or so months since the last Kaiju had made landfall in Sydney. It was getting to be crunch time again and yet Sasha was here, just as stuck in this ice box as the prisoners she was guarding.

The feeling of helplessness she got from thinking about the Kaiju put a bad taste in her mouth. Sasha did _not_ like feeling helpless; she had a disdain for problems she couldn't efficiently deconstruct with a few well-placed shots or one good punch. Not to say she was opposed to diplomacy, but by the time Sasha got involved in things the talking was usually done.

Luckily for Sasha and the prisoners, no one was making much of a fuss today. The guard had shifted again, allowing the last set of guards to go back to civilization since commutes to a frozen wasteland weren't exactly easy. Fresh guards would take over the barracks for the next two months, get paid on the way out, and go back home for the next two months in peace and quiet, provided a giant monster didn't decide to walk all over it in the meantime.

At least Aleksis was on her shift again this time. Having a friend and sparring partner helped pass the time when you weren't on active duty. It was almost necessary to keep your sanity, having to put up with these animals in cages. One snarled at Sasha as she walked past, a relatively new inmate that she didn't recognize right off. She stopped right in her tracks and stared daggers at the woman. The inmate accepted the challenge, grabbing her bars as she began to call Sasha a bitch, among other things, but the guard cut her off by demonstrating why placing limbs outside of the bars was a bad idea. The inmate barely saw the rifle move, the butt of the gun smashing her fingers between the hardened wood and cold steel. Sasha then continued on with her patrol, her etiquette lesson hopefully sinking in. The inmate wouldn't be doing that again anytime soon either due to intelligence or inability due to the broken ring finger. Either way, the glare would be enough next time.

'_Well, now I'm bored again,'_ Sasha thought to herself as she continued slowly stalking the walkways, glancing in each cell as she passed and maintained her icy stare. She disliked the quiet to a degree; it gave her nothing to do but look at people and scowl. The hardy blonde loved busting heads. She got a rush out of brawling and made no attempts to shy away from it. She almost missed her old job on days like this. At least the prisoners would be moving for breakfast soon and she'd have a little bit more to do.

Aleksis would be there as well, no doubt grumpy at having to wake up at the crack of dawn again. Sasha nearly allowed herself a smirk as she pictured the giant holding a coffee cup in one hand and his rifle in the other, slinking along like an old man in fuzzy slippers. It also meant Valery would be there, a fact Sasha tried her best to ignore. He was a piss poor guard on a good day, cruel without reason and made no attempts to hide his lechery. She had slapped him more than once for lying about contraband searches just to feel up an inmate. She would have done more were he not a friend of the warden.

Though now that Sasha thought about it, she and Valery should have crossed paths again by now to begin sending the inmates to the cafeteria. The realization gave her a sinking feeling in her stomach, her pace quickening as she turned off of her assigned route and onto Valery's. She swore to God if that man was attempting to flirt with an inmate again she was going to shove her gun right up his ass and unload a magazine into his head.

* * *

The two inmates thought little of it when Valery came back with three other guards, not recognizing them as friends of the bastard and simply thought it was time to be let out for breakfast. Valery wasn't stupid enough to try something without backup knowing he was outnumbered. They would have no qualms about killing him; Ren was already sentenced to ten years and she wasn't afraid of three or four more. Assuming, of course, she let him keep his pulse. Wouldn't be the first person she'd tested that line with.

Vera began walking first, as was the norm for the cellmates, with Ren watching the guards like a hawk before moving off of the back wall. Vera passed by the guards and made it outside of the cell, a relief for Ren, but as soon as it was time for her to do the same she felt a forearm connect with her throat. It knocked her back into her cell but not off her feet as Valery and Vera came back in. Valery was holding a combat knife to Vera's neck with one hand, the other holding her waist with her left arm pinned beneath his arm, the other held by the wrist in his grip. Vera could kick, but the other three guards had their rifles raised. Ren nor Vera would survive retaliation, just like Valery wanted.

"Let her go you son of a bitch!" Ren shouted before the butt of a rifle slammed into her face in response, bloodying her nose and mouth as she fell back and nearly lost consciousness. She was helped the rest of the way to the ground when one scrawny looking guard slammed a boot down on her chest before pointing his gun at her head.

"Don't worry, you'll get your turn." he whispered, leaning down so Ren would feel the heat off of his words.

Valery had acquired more underlings than Ren had guessed. It seemed the prospect of having a harem in the middle of nowhere was very tempting. Vera was screaming now, a hand vanishing beneath her shirt. She squirmed as much as she could to try to get away. A small trickle of blood dripped down her neck where her resistance had caused the knife to dig into her skin a bit too much. Ren's face was growing red as she watched, waiting for one of these guys to screw up and give her an opening. If she moved now she'd just get shot before she got to her feet. Vera wouldn't be saved by a corpse.

Valery made a tactical error, however. Not all the guards on patrol in this section of the prison were buddies of his, and one of them was looking for an excuse to kick his ass. It would have been a good idea to have one of the guards keep an eye out for passersby, but Valery was cocky. He was friends with the warden of this prison. Any accusations needed evidence, which didn't include testimony from the inmates who had no reason to tell the truth. So when the guard closest to the door, a portly bastard that somehow passed the fitness requirements, found the butt of a rifle slam into the side of his head the other three were more than a little surprised to see Sasha standing in the cell. She was holding her rifle by the barrel though quickly spun it back around to hold it properly. The guy she had hit fell to the ground, barely breathing. He may not be able to count when he got up, but he'd live. One down, three to go.

"What in the hell are you doing?! Let the convict go, NOW!" Sasha shouted.

She pointed her rifle at the man whose boot was still planted on Ren's chest. It was all the opening Ren needed. She grabbed the toothpick's ankle and threw up a shoulder as hard as she could to get him off balance and forced him to take a step forward. As soon as the foot was off of her she sprang to her feet and elbowed the man in the face as he turned around. This was happening in slow motion to Ren, who was focusing on her breathing as she went through the well-rehearsed motions. With the man dazed she hooked an arm under his armpit, a simple matter from there to flip him onto his back and followed the move with a crouched punch to his face. All practiced, efficient, and controlled movements.

Sasha watched out of the corner of her eye, wishing she could back the inmate up but knew that her rifle was the only thing keeping her from getting shot. This left Sasha with only one other target besides Valery who still held the knife to Vera's neck. It was a standoff now, Sasha shifting her scope between Valery and his last goon standing. Ren was on her feet now, but wasn't moving for fear of Vera getting killed over it. Vera had yet to stop moving, clawing at Valery's grip through her tears. Valery kept demanding she stop but she'd rather die than let him have his way.

"Valery, there's no winning this. If you kill her, I shoot you and your friends and accept the fallout. If you let her go, I will keep the other inmate off of you until we're both out of the cell. Those are the only two options you have right now!" Sasha shouted, her gun pointing at Valery as she spoke.

The man and his friend looked like scared vermin, twitching and sweating as they tried to figure out a way to salvage this. They hadn't expected Sasha to break from her patrol, or for Ren to knock one of them out. Vera was keeping quiet now that Valery was in as much danger as she was, still whimpering under her breath as she tried to keep calm. Ren was glaring at Valery as her anger grew in her chest. The only move Valery made was slowly inching back, trying to get away without letting go of his hostage. Valery's last goon was unable to decide where to point his gun. The first person to lose their cool was going to set off a chain reaction that few would survive.

Lucky for them, there was another guard in this section of the prison wondering where the hell everyone else was. Aleksis turned a corner and spotted Valery inching out of the cell with his hostage in hand and immediately started speeding up into a hard run to take advantage of the thirty yard straightaway between them. Valery was too focused on the rifle barrel pointed at his face to notice the seven foot man charging, but Vera wasn't. Her eyes had been darting around nonstop to find a way out. With Valery backing away, the only thing keeping him safe was his hostage. Vera hoped to correct this. As soon as she saw Aleksis, she wriggled an arm loose from Valery's grip and pushed the arm holding the knife away from her as she ran forward. Valery still held a grip on her wrist and was trying to yank her back towards him, terrified of losing his hostage before he figured out a way out of this. Unfortunately for Valery his fate was decided as soon as Aleksis' shoulder connected with his ribcage. Vera got yanked along with Valery, but the man's grip loosened as soon as he hit the ground and she fell down outside of her cell. She got a spectacular view of Aleksis mounting his new found bitch before swinging the back of his fist across Valery's jaw. Sasha didn't miss a beat either, taking advantage of the confusion to turn and swing her elbow into the face of the last minion standing and shoved the barrel of her rifle into his mouth.

"DROP THE DAMN WEAPON! NOW!" Sasha shouted, the man replying as quickly as anyone could by letting go of his gun and raising his hands. She was excited now, adrenaline pumping at the rush of dissolving the situation. She'd missed it.

With the hostilities over now, Sasha and Aleksis dragged the unconscious or compliant guards back out of the cell and locked the door back. As soon as this was done, Sasha let out a sigh as the rush faded and reached for the walkie-talkie on her belt.

"Section 12, Sasha Zolnerowich reporting in. An incident has occurred but has been contained in front of cell M one two dash nine. Guards injured after attempted rape of prisoners. No casualties and all prisoners accounted for. Copy?" Sasha said, wincing slightly as she heard a fist smack flesh as soon as she said the word 'rape.'

Aleksis hadn't known what the situation had started from and Sasha had been too focused on establishing order to ease her friend into the details. More guards from other sections would now be on their way and the report would be sent to the warden since guard injury had occurred. The fact the Senior Officer didn't verbally respond was a bad sign.

Aleksis, his anger sated now, stood and popped the joints in his neck before slowly walking over to the cell a good bit of the brawl had occurred in. He looked from Ren, who still had a boot print on her chest, to Vera who was crying into Ren's shoulder.

"Did he…?" He asked, looking back to Sasha, who shook her head no. He nodded back, obviously relieved, and then looked back into the cell. "I am glad then. I am sorry that this happened. It is no consolation I know, but Valery will not be fit for duty for some time with that dislocated jaw." He said, Ren smirking in response.

"Thanks for popping him one extra just now. Was he awake to feel it?" She asked. Aleksis smirked back, nodding once before turning his back to the cell.

Sasha shook her head and looked at the bodies laid out on the floor, then at the blood on the stock of her rifle from her entrance earlier. Regardless of the motives they had, they probably wouldn't be employed after this. Not after breaking the jaw of a friend of the warden's like that.

"I'm glad you're making friends. We might be neighbors with them after all this." Sasha quipped but smiled gently regardless as she looked back at the bodies, "Dumb bastards."

Aleksis ran a gloved hand through his brown hair, nodding in agreement. "Yeah, maybe. There are worse things to be locked up for I suppose. Who knows, maybe we will simply get fired and be forced to walk back home. Have to think positively, Sasha," the big guy replied back, laughing a little as the sound of boots stomping in the distance reached their ears.

Sasha heard it as well and her smile faded as a result. She wasn't looking forward to what would come next but Aleksis had a good point. Despite the spin that would be put on this they did the right thing, if violently, and she would not be ashamed to be locked up a few years as a result. It would quell her boredom to say the least.

"It's been a pleasure working with you, Aleksis. I hope we get the chance to do so again when things are not so crazy, provided a Kaiju doesn't find Russia."

* * *

It felt good sitting behind the mahogany desk. It was an honor to sit behind the desk, to have the knowledge that your words could topple empires or create them. If Nikita weren't so intelligent, the weight of his influence might scare him but his ego allowed him to relish the position. There were currently four people in the room, three men and one woman, and at his command any one of them would kill the others without hesitation. The only thing that prevented this (aside from moral decency) was the fact that Nikita's father could have his head on a pike at an hour's notice. So Nikita continued sitting behind the desk, looking at the papers before him as he plotted.

He held pictures of the fifth Kaiju - Karloff he'd been named - but more importantly than that, he held pictures of Brawler Yukon wedging its robotic fist between Karloff's ribs. The first Kaiju killed without nuclear fallout. The first Jaeger. The pictures had been sent by Nikita's father along with a letter from the recently formed **P**an **P**acific **D**efense **C**orp, specifically their Jaeger Program. The world needed pilots, Russia needed protection, and the family did not want to miss a stake in the defense of the planet. The letter was the typical recruitment jargon every high-school kid would know well, but with it came an application to enter the program.

This was where Nikita began to frown. He had read the line several times to make sure he wasn't misreading it, but it unfortunately wasn't a typo. It took two to pilot a jaeger, someone with whom the pilot was close to. The specific example given was siblings. They briefly explained the concept of drifting in the recruitment letter, what it entailed and its necessity, but the thought of sharing a mind with his sister Renata frightened him. He loved his sister, don't get him wrong, but ever since she returned from her eight years in the military she was a demon. She had always been angry as a child and gotten into a lot of schoolyard fights over nothing, but as an adult she had been trained to kill. She was at present locked up because she couldn't control her temper. Nikita didn't think putting her in a giant war machine would be the best of ideas... but he also couldn't think of anyone better to point at a giant monster and let loose. The real question was the same one posed at the end of the recruitment letter, written in his father's handwriting.

_Can you control her? _

If it was his father's wish, he would certainly try. Which brought Nikita to the next piece of paper on his desk, a letter from Ren. It started off as every letter from Ren did, the words, "_Hey, you sorry sack of shit" _as the greeting, but then was just a name. Valery. It appeared that a guard in Prison Camp 34 had attempted a series of unsavory actions towards his dear sister and her cellmate. Two other guards ended up beating him within an inch of his life and Ren wanted some strings pulled. It was rare that she wanted favors. She wanted Valery and the guards that helped him dead, something that went without saying honestly, but she also asked that the guards that helped her not end up in jail for it. Looking from the letter Ren had written to the **PPDC** papers, Nikita nodded before looking up at his employees.

"Grigory, take three men and go find a guard named Valery from Renata's prison. I want him dead. I'll find his exact position and send it to you through the usual means. Prepare until then." Nikita stated calmly, one of the men nodding before leaving Nikita's office.

Next, Nikita turned to his assistant Anya. "Aleksis Kaidonovsky and Sasha Zolnerowich. Track these two down and ensure they are sent to one of our judges, and have one of our lawyers." The woman nodded before retrieving her phone from her pocket and began tapping at the screen.

With these tasks delegated Ren's requests were fulfilled. Nikita leaned back in his cushioned chair and looked about his office, the rosewood walls, the expensive paintings on those walls, including the commissioned portrait of Nikita, instilled in him a sense of relaxation. He smiled about his lot in the world as his eyes drifted back down towards his desk and the PPDC papers. The world needed Jaeger pilots.

"Anya, have their lawyers also give them copies of these forms here," Nikita demanded, tapping a finger on the Jaeger program application.

The decision was made on a whim, thinking two people capable of stopping four armed men from harming an inmate would find work in the Defense Corp even if they weren't drift compatible. He owed them for keeping his sister safe, after all. A job should suffice. Now to get back to business.

"Kazimir, come with me. I'm going to go visit Ren early this month. We have things to discuss with her and the warden. Bring Ivan too. He gets testy when we hurt people without him."

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Thank you for reading!


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own anything you may recognize.

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Date: February 2016

The past half a year had been rough on every pilot hopeful in the Jaeger Academy. You woke up before the sun to prepare for morning inspection before even thinking of breakfast. As soon as you cleaned your plate, you and your partner reported in for training. They taught everything from the mechanics of drifting to full on simulated battles, drifting together in tandem with a computer program while rigged in a very basic conn-pod. The Academy taught you everything, but it was your performance in the simulations that determined if you would ever set foot in a real jaeger. It was highly competitive amongst the pilots as far as performance and the time taken to kill each artificial Kaiju.

Out of their respective classes, two teams were always at the front of the pack: Ren and Nikita, and Sasha and Aleksis. Sasha and Aleksis were uncommonly drift compatible it turned out, allowing them to have higher response times and, consequently, faster kill times. The fact both were very good at fighting outside of jaegers going in didn't hurt either. Ren and Nikita lacked the same strength in their neural handshake, but made up for it with unorthodox (though effective) fighting styles. Between Nikita's strategically strong mind and Ren's natural fighting instinct, their kill counts were among the highest: one hundred drops and ninety-nine kills. Their only failure was their first drop when Nikita vomited during his first drift with Ren. It wasn't exactly rare for things like this to happen during your first drift, but Nikita took the lack of perfection harder than most would, possibly due to the fact Ren had brought it up at every opportunity since.

Sasha and Aleksis had the honor of a perfect deployment record, one hundred drops and one hundred kills. All were efficient and clean, with both pilots favoring the approach of crushing the skull with their fists. The two had gotten significantly closer to one another as well, rarely speaking in public but holding hands as they walked into classes or the simulation rooms. They were made fun of at first, until the simulation results were slowly made public to the other students. They were proof that the more compatible you were, the better you fought. They especially got the attention from the higher ups after a simulation glitch caused the Kaiju in the simulation to go from a category two to a category four and it still didn't tarnish their record.

Now the two pilot teams were standing outside of the Vladivostok Shatterdome, their new home during the Kaiju War, as they awaited someone to tell them where the heck they were supposed to go. From what Nikita had managed to overhear, there was a fight amongst the repair crews and the base commander was breaking it up with extreme prejudice. It gave the two teams a chance to mingle a bit. The last Ren really saw of Sasha or Aleksis was when they were escorted away from her cell and to the warden. Sasha and Aleksis seemed surprised to see Ren was no longer behind bars, not to mention a jaeger pilot. It made both Ren and Nikita smile.

"Nice to see you too. You guys greet everyone with that glare, or just people you have history with?" Ren asked with a smug grin.

Sasha narrowed her eyes at the woman and took a step forward, but Aleksis had a gloved hand on her shoulder before she got any further. She turned the glare back at him, but the big guy simply shook his head - his way of saying to let it go. Ren's grin widened a bit as she watched.

"I'm on loan from the prison. On parole until I'm done with the rest of my sentence or the Kaiju stop coming out of the breach. Hoping for the former… I wasn't a favorite of the warden after I beat up one of his guards. If I remember right, that guy lost his sense of smell when I punched him in the head," Ren mused, looking over to Nikita for confirmation. He smiled back before crossing his arms.

"Actually he died due to surgical complications," he corrected. Sasha and Aleksis both narrowed their eyes at the siblings now, particularly Nikita. The brother shrugged as Ren laughed.

"Oh please, don't act all self-righteous. Not after what you guys caught them doing. If it makes you feel better, think of how many inmates won't be afraid of contraband checks now," Ren spat, a glare in her eyes now as well as she stared down Sasha.

Aleksis simply sighed before squeezing Sasha's shoulder gently and wrapping an arm around her, easing her closer to himself and away from Ren. Sasha allowed it, keeping her eyes on Ren until her head was resting on Aleksis' chest before taking a deep breath to calm down. As he gently held his partner back, Aleksis looked up towards Ren and studied her for a moment. The woman was a little shorter than Sasha, sporting a gray beanie pulled over her ears to cover her head from the cold, as well as a dull green scarf. She also wore gray camouflage pants and a thick white winter coat zipped up to her neck to keep the wind off of her skin. If he hadn't known her in prison, he might not have guessed she'd been arrested for killing four people. The brother was nonchalantly tapping the screen of his smart phone all the while. It bothered Aleksis a bit that the two thought so little of the act of killing.

"Your cellmate, how is she holding up?" Aleksis asked, his voice deep but calm as he looked Ren in the eyes. Sasha couldn't help but smirk. The man was a gentle giant, as good with diplomacy as she was with pressure points. Ren spat on the ground and looked off to the side, having not expected the question.

"She's fine, out on probation now. We wrote each other a lot while I was learning how to kill Kaiju," She replied, not looking at Aleksis as she spoke. He smiled and nodded his head as Sasha slid out of his arms and faced Ren.

"I am glad to hear that. I was scared that I hadn't realized things in time to stop that asshole," She said gently as a smirk eased onto her lips. Ren eyed Sasha warily as she spoke and smirked a little herself.

"I had it under control. I didn't look forward to handling it myself, but those assholes weren't leaving that cell alive. Don't think we're fucking gal pals now just because you saved me some effort," Ren barked, prompting a rather nasty scowl from Sasha.

At this point, Nikita finally put away his phone and moved in for damage control. He put a hand on Ren's shoulder and gently squeezed to get her attention. She glared at him, but saw the stern look in his eyes and her face softened a bit. They'd talked before leaving the academy about not making the people they had to share a roof with wanting to kill the both of them. Once Nikita saw a bit of the aggression leave his sister's eyes he turned to face Sasha and Aleksis with a smile.

"My apologies for our behavior. I was tidying up some loose ends from my work and Ren doesn't like feeling as though she owes people. My name is Nikita and I hope you can forgive us for being less than professional during our first impression," He beamed as he tried to use his charm to keep the peace. "So you were the guards that stepped in during that unpleasant incident? You have my sincere thanks for keeping my sister out of more trouble. While I don't doubt that she could have handled the situation, I am certain that if she were to have tried I never would have seen her outside of prison again. Thank you both."

Sasha eyed him cautiously as he spoke, studying him like a hawk might a field mouse. His short black hair was slicked back but covered almost entirely by a black toboggan. His teeth were obviously bleached white and the mostly black outfit he wore probably cost as much as Sasha's home in Saratov. He wore designer black shoes, recently pressed dress pants and, she assumed, beneath the knee length thick coat he was wearing a three piece suit. As she looked him over she couldn't help but think back to the hearing over her assault on Valery and his underlings. There was no way a court assigned lawyer could manage to get the charges dropped on an open and shut case like hers without really belonging to a high end firm.

So that's where they had come from. That connection, and the surgical malpractice the man had mentioned earlier made a few things click. Sasha smirked smugly as she looked up at Aleksis - or would have, had he not started to move at that moment. He gave Nikita a slap on the back before wrapping an arm around him and shaking him about as he laughed.

"So the lawyers were yours? You have my thanks as well then, my friend. I could barely pay rent as it was. A good lawyer was beyond my pay grade," He laughed.

This elicited a smile from both Sasha and Ren until the former noticed someone was walking towards them. She walked over and tugged firmly on Aleksis' arm to get him to stop being so friendly and pointed to the woman approaching them, prompting the group as a whole to face her. They started to line up, thinking perhaps this was their commanding officer, but as soon as the woman noticed she yelled for them to cut it out.

"Oh stop it. I borrowed the military looking coat from the guy who was _supposed _to come out here and meet you but I've got no technical authority over you. At ease or whatever," She shouted, earning raised eyebrows from the group at her accent.

She was speaking fluent Russian but the dialect sounded American. Sasha thought about it and it sounded kind of like the accent in a surfer movie she'd been forced to sit through in the past. Since the woman was tan and seemed to have on a coat beneath the dull green one she'd claimed to have borrowed, Sasha took that to mean she was from a coastal city in the US, but what the hell was she doing all the way out in Vladivostok?

The woman stopped a few feet away from the group and began studying her clipboard. She looked from it to the group a few times before smiling. "Good, you're the right people. I stopped four members of the technical team and confused the hell out of them before I remembered I have pictures with your files. My name is Samantha Thompson and I'm the communications officer, the electrician, the secretary, and the unpaid intern of the Shatterdome. The Brigadier General is busting heads over in the maintenance wing right now. You're lucky, he had this whole speech prepared and it was just chock full of tough guy jargon and a bunch of other shit that got old the first hundred times he practiced it in the mirror. I on the other hand have fifty things to fix or check on today and this is cutting into my time. So, without further ado, allow me to welcome you to the Vladivostok Shatterdome. Now get the fuck inside, I'm not built for negative temperatures," Samantha said, pointing behind her to the building briefly before turning to jog that way.

It seemed Sasha's speculations were true as far as this woman not being from Russia. She couldn't resist a smirk as she saw Samantha's pace quicken. Taking a brief glance around her she saw the other pilots were doing the same.

It took little effort on the part of the pilots to catch up with Samantha right as she arrived inside of the base, allowing the woman to shut the doors and block out the cold. The inside of the base was a very warm sixty degrees, blistering compared to outside, which lead Sasha to believe maybe Samantha was in charge of the thermostat. Everyone, besides Samantha, pretty much had to strip down to keep from overheating due to their bulky warm clothing. Now it was Samantha's turn to smirk.

"Sorry guys but not everyone in the building is used to the cold. So let's get things started. Aleksis Kaidonovsky and Sasha Zolnerowich, you guys are the pilots for the Russian Mark 1 Jaeger Cherno Alpha. Once we get through this corridor and out of the elevator you'll probably be able to see it in the maintenance wing. It's the one with the giant fists," Samantha said, winking at Aleksis as she said the last bit. The giant grumbled something and turned his head, getting a laugh out of Sasha.

"Don't be so modest," she said, poking Aleksis in the side. Samantha smiled as she watched while Ren pretended she was gagging.

"Right, pressing on. Renata Kotko and Nikita Kotko, you two are pilots for the Mark 2 Latvian Jaeger Bravo Zver. It's not as tall as Cherno but looks like a giant robotic werewolf. May not make sense now but wait until you get a good look at it. You were assigned to both based on your fighting styles and data studied while you were in the academy. As soon as you were designated pilots and not just hopefuls by your instructors, you've been studied like lab rats while you killed pretend monsters. Neat, right? Okay, let's move on. A lot to see and a few people you should meet. I'm saving the maintenance wing for last since it might be a minute before it is guest friendly. The Cherno teams are primarily Irish while the Bravo teams are mostly British. Do not bring up soccer teams in that wing. The Bravo foreman did and now fistfights have broken out," Samantha said, motioning towards the end of the rather industrial looking corridor at the elevator.

There were no walls to hide all the new pipes or displays lining the corridor. Even the floor was bare bones metal sheets, giving Nikita the feeling the Shatterdome wasn't one hundred percent complete yet. Ren couldn't stop grinning as Samantha spoke, digging the fact that this place wasn't going to be as strict as the last military base she'd been in. She might not hate living here until the Kaiju stopped coming out of the breach.

The elevator ride down into the Shatterdome proper was very spacious, even with the seven foot giant in the box. They even had enough room for someone to wheel in a shipment of food rations along with them, a tower of boxes on a wooden pallet stacked higher than Aleksis.

Ren looked from the shipment to Aleksis and smirked before elbowing Sasha in the side, "Sure your boyfriend's fed, but where the hell are_ our_ rations?"

And despite the less than stellar impression Ren had left on Sasha, she couldn't hold back a chuckle. Seeing this caused Aleksis to smile as well, but Nikita was again burying his nose in his phone. The expressions quickly faded as they each got an eyeful of the Shatterdome main floor and the hugeness of it all as the elevator stopped and the doors opened wide. The floors were painted black and waxed till they shone. Yellow and white lines made it look like a stretch of fresh interstate rather than a military base floor, but the illusion quickly faded when you looked up and saw all the hustle and bustle of fork lifts and small trucks hauling supplies around. People scurried like ants holding clip boards and cardboard tubes. The man hauling the food shipment quickly merged with the traffic on the floor and vanished as he joined a herd of similar shipments heading to what Sasha assumed was the storehouse.

Aleksis was gazing out at the herds of people and smiling, spotting a couple both carrying clipboards walking close together. The boy was fidgeting and the girl was inching closer to him as they talked. The apocalypse was at their doorstep but people still found time for love. He believed that spoke volumes about humanity.

Aleksis wasn't the only one scanning the crowds ahead of them. Sasha and Ren's eyes were both darting around rather quickly at the catwalks above them, where there were rows upon rows of doors and, it seemed, every man in uniform up there was holding a gun. There were no armed guards behind them so Ren could make a run for it now if she needed to. Sasha didn't like the appearance of guards either, even if all they were packing were pistols and beanbag guns. This wasn't a prison, so there was no need for the same armaments as in the prison camp, but Sasha couldn't help but feel naked without something of equal caliber at her own hip. _At least that rabid dog will feel more at home here_, Sasha thought to herself, glaring over at Ren. The former con shot the look back and smirked before spitting on Sasha's boots. Aleksis almost didn't make it in time to block Sasha's punch.

"Calm down Ren, no need to antagonize our colleagues. We'll have plenty of things trying to kill us before long," Nikita murmured before pointing off into the distance.

Ren squinted at first, unsure of what she was looking for, but things clicked as soon as she remembered Sam's description. They could see the jaegers off in the distance, giant sentinels watching the floor. They stood beside each other, fists at their sides and backs straight. It reminded Sasha and Ren of soldiers, while it reminded Aleksis of brothers. Nikita simply saw giant robots, though noticed that the legs bent backwards just under the knee of one, almost as though it were standing on haunches instead of legs. He assumed that one was the werewolf then.

"Good eye, was wondering if anyone was going to spot them or just gawk at the people running around. We have to go up to the catwalks for a bit so you'll get a better look at them in a minute. First, there's someone I want you guys to meet as she will be a big part of your continued training here at the base. She's also a friend of mine so watch your asses," Samantha said with a smile, motioning for everyone to follow her as she headed into the crowds and toward a flight of metal stairs.

It didn't take long for them to reach the second floor of the base and what was classified as the research and development wing, where Samantha practically flew towards one of the doors and peeked inside of the reinforced glass window. A wide grin grew on her face as she turned to face the group again and slowly opened the door. It was unclear whether or not Sam could read lips or if she was simply a telepath, but she opened the door in time for the phrase "For the last time Todd we're not coding in the genitals!" to be shouted in its entirety.

Samantha and Ren immediately began laughing while the others covered their mouths with their hands in an attempt to hide their chuckling. Within the room there was silence for a few moments followed by yelling in a foreign language no one but Ren could follow, before a very young looking Japanese girl bounced out of the room and shut the door behind her. Her hair reached past her shoulders, part of it up in pigtails held up with pink bows. The rest of her seemed fairly normal, the hair being the only real thing about her that stood out. She wore a very clean and recently pressed white lab coat and a pair of goggles hung around her neck, and was wearing slacks and a pair of black tennis shoes. The woman glared momentarily at Sam, whose grin had only grown since the woman's appearance, before she noticed the other people gathered around. She immediately stiffened up and bowed to the group, with only Ren returning the gesture.

"I am so sorry for my rudeness. My name is Minori Fukatawa and I'm very pleased to meet you all," she said, enunciating as best she could in fluent Russian. Ren let out a laugh before crossing her arms over her chest and stepped forward.

"_We took no offense Minori-san. My name is Kotko Renata but everyone calls me Ren. Pleasure to meet you,_" Ren responded, getting confused looks from everyone as it had been fluent Japanese. The woman simply shrugged and re-crossed her arms before smirking, "I was stationed for more than a few years in the Kuril Islands. I needed a hobby and wanted to do more than scream in Russian to carry out my duties," she explained, though it did little to diminish the confused looks on everyone's faces but Nikita's. Sam was the first to shake it off and began introducing Minori to the group.

"Okay, so the big bear here is Aleksis Kaidonovsky and this is his trainer, Sasha Zolnerowich. They're the pilot team for Cherno Alpha. Over here is the always full of surprises Ren Kotko and her so far very shy brother Nikki Kotko. They're piloting Bravo Zver. I figured you'd want to meet them once they got here," Samantha said, stopping every so often for Minori to finish giggling.

Nikita's eyes narrowed once his name was brought up and he started to step forward and say something, but Ren stopped him by putting him in a headlock and began digging her knuckles in his skull.

"What's the matter Nikki? Mad that someone else is calling you that? Don't tell me the great crime lord is getting his feelings hurt by a schoolgirl and a snarky secretary," she snickered, prompting a few unkind words from Nikita before Ren let him go. As soon as she did, Minori stepped forward and patted him softly on the head, giving him a look of concern.

"Oh, poor Nikita-kun. I won't call you something if it makes you mad," she gently cooed as her eyes searched his own. She had a very cute face and Nikita couldn't help but look away as he began to feel self-conscious. He sighed and could practically feel everyone's eyes on him as Minori waited for a response.

"No, it's fine. I couldn't get mad at someone so cute anyway," He replied, causing Minori to smile before stepping back and giving Nikita a wink.

"Then Nikki-kun it is. I'm in the research and development team here, as well as a liaison to some of the other departments. I study Kaiju and it's my job to ensure that both jaeger teams are as efficient in battle as possible," Minori beamed. Sasha and Nikita both nodded at this while Sam stepped up to be beside of Minori and began to poke her friend in the side of the head.

"Don't be so modest dear. Minori here is the lead scientist and director of the science team and designs Kaiju for the simulations you four will be familiarizing yourselves with soon. She's also a ton of fun to be around when she's not trying to act professional. Why just the other night after three shots of vodka she-", Sam started but was cut off by Minori's hand covering her mouth.

"Sam you promised not to say anything!" The scientist hissed, getting a laugh out of the group as Sam eased her friend's hand away.

"Just messing with you. We'll let you get back to work now but you better get your butt to the mess hall in time for lunch today. I don't care if you are trying to finish off the scale patterns or measuring a toenail, you need to eat," Sam scolded, playfully wagging her finger at Minori who merely smiled in reply.

It was apparent the two had become friends since coming to work at the Shatterdome. Aleksis thought they were adorable together. After Sam's nagging, Minori said her goodbyes and slunk back into what Nikita assumed was the conference room of the R&D and the tour recommenced.

Sam led them back downstairs and headed straight for a tunnel off to the far right of the massive main floor. As she walked, she explained that these were the sleeping quarters for the staff with the jaeger pilot's rooms at the end of the tunnel. Both teams would bunk together with either bunk beds or twin beds, with Sam winking at Aleksis at the mention of the latter. Sam didn't have to point out which rooms were whose as the name of their jaegers were engraved in the steel doors. Flipping through her clipboard, Sam removed four cards attached to papers and handed them out. They were the identification cards the group would need to get in their rooms and a few other rooms which required clearance to enter. They already had their pictures on them, photos taken when they'd graduated from the academy. Ren's photo had her flipping off the camera, a fact that had gotten a hearty laugh out of Sam when she'd first seen it.

Inside of the rooms were basic accommodations anyone would need, like bathrooms and beds. Empty shelves lined the walls along with a wooden wardrobe as well as a closet. It was bare bones now, but it seemed the group was encouraged to personalize as they wished. The only thing that seemed out of place were flat screen TVs sitting on a cabinet across from the beds, plugged in with their remotes placed at their base. This led Sasha to see it as a teenager's apartment rather than a proper barracks.

Ren was the first one to venture inside her room, tossing her bags off to the side before grabbing the remote, leaping onto her bed as she turned on her TV. Nikita joined her, with the Cherno team heading into their own room to settle in. Aleksis' first act was to push the beds together, getting a smirk out of Sasha and Sam. Nikita ventured in as well, setting his bags down while looking around the room, half listening to the TV as Ren flipped through stations. It had probably been a few years since she'd gotten to watch anything, going from prison to a boot camp. It surprised him a bit when she finally settled on the news, but once he registered a little of what the reporter was saying he simply smiled at Ren. There was a fairly pretty blonde woman sitting behind a news desk, with a screen behind her showing footage of the helipad the group had been standing on earlier from an aerial view. Ren was smiling wide as she turned the volume up for the others to hear.

"_We have confirmation that the four figures standing on the platform our news helicopter saw earlier today are indeed the new jaeger pilots rumored to be arriving for active duty today. We could not get a close up of faces, but we do have information the Pan Pacific Defense Corps were gracious enough to give us. Our very own Russian Jaeger, Cherno Alpha, will be piloted by Aleksis Kaidonovsky and Sasha Zolnerowich…_" The news anchor announced as the same photos on the pilot's ID cards filled the screen. By now the others had piled into the Kotko's room to get a look at the news report, with the Cherno pilots smiling at their photos. Aleksis nudged Sasha gently with his shoulder and winked at her.

"And now we are celebrities. I think we made a good career change," Aleksis chuckled before Sasha nudged him back with her own elbow, smiling at him.

"Yes, before we couldn't afford to buy milk at the store, and now we can't walk outside to go to the store without being mobbed. At least I'll be an action figure," She said, getting a laugh out of the others.

As they spoke, the woman on the screen prattled on about what they knew of the pilots, which was little to nothing of importance. There was speculation on the relationship between Sasha and Aleksis, and a mention of their previous career as prison guards. Ren then turned the volume up again as her and Nikita's photo's filled the screen.

"_…and we can't forget about our allied brethren in Latvia. They are also rejoicing as their jaeger pilots report for duty alongside our own Russian team. Renata and Nikita Kotko, siblings and pilots for Bravo Zver can be seen here sharing a laugh with their fellow pilots as they enter the Shatterdome. We are still reaching out to our Latvian allies for more information on these two, but if the records given to us by the Pan Pacific are any indication, they will be a definite force to be reckoned with by any Kaiju. Hopefully in the very near future we can reach out to the pilots themselves…"_

With this said, Ren turned down the volume again and let out an unsettling laugh. "Fucking figures. Guess that son of a bitch couldn't figure out a decent fucking _fake_ life for me either," Ren spat, her face growing redder with every word. Nikita snatched the remote from her and turned the television off before placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't pay it any mind. That kind of thing isn't why we're here and if you'll notice, I lacked information as well. The records are probably just caught in red tape," Nikita whispered, which seemed to calm Ren back down again. After a moment or two she even managed a twisted smile.

"Yeah, guess I'll just have to deal for now," Ren muttered, hopping off the bed before looking at the others. They were staring at her, wanting an explanation for her outburst. Ren replied by flipping them off. Sam coughed to break the silence that followed and motioned towards the door.

"While you guys were watching the news I got word that the issues in the maintenance wing have been resolved. We can meet the boss-man and get a close up look at your fighting machines. Exciting, huh?" Sam said with a nervous laugh, still eying Ren a bit before leading everyone out of the room and eventually out of the tunnel once the doors were shut.

It took a good twenty minutes of fast paced but silent walking to make it to the maintenance bay, a testament to how massive the building was. Sam would have preferred to drive one of the golf carts here but there weren't any not already in use. She hoped once the dome was up to the Brigadier's standards the floor wouldn't be so traffic heavy and she could cut out some of this walking. It was giving her a literal pain in her ass. Having to dodge forklifts and work crews as they too hiked around the building did not help matters much. Even the noises going on around them were starting to annoy Sam, hissing steam and constant beeping as forklifts backed up. The sooner she got back in her safe communications relay room the better. At least there she could mute the cameras at will and be sitting in her cushioned and heated chair while she worked, none of this hour long hiking bullshit. She was looking forward to just that as soon as she dropped the newbies off with the commanding officer. Let him walk his ass off for a while. Though she had to admit, she liked these guys more than most of the others she was forced to interact with. Ren in particular seemed to share Samantha's mischievous sense of humor. Either way, as the group got closer to the elevator they'd need to use to reach the foremen, Sam found the base commander standing before it with his arms crossed and scowling as his gaze settled on her. Breaking up the riot had probably left him in a foul mood. Excuses to escape quickly flooded the communications officer's mind.

"Who's that angry asshole blocking the way?" Ren asked, putting a hand on Sam's shoulder to get her attention as she pointed ahead of them.

All Sam had time to do was wince before the man stomped forward to meet the group, his gaze now meeting Ren's. The Brigadier General had excellent hearing. He stopped five paces short of the group and placed his arms behind his back without breaking his glare. Ren was returning it just as intensely, which only caused veins to start throbbing in the man's forehead.

"2ND LIEUTENANT RENATA KOTKO, STEP FORWARD!" The man shouted, Ren's eyes widening as she realized that this was their commanding officer. She did as ordered, stepping forward and standing at attention, saluting as she wiped all traces of emotion from her face. "You will from now on address me as Sir. I will consider any alternate monikers as insubordination and have you shipped back out to Camp 34 where a cell in solitary is being kept warm for your prolonged stay. This goes for the rest of you rangers, who had better get in line with the 2nd lieutenant this instant or I will instruct the kitchen staff to ignore you in the mess hall for the next twenty four hours," The man spat, face red as he barked orders at the group. All but Sam filed in, who slowly snuck to stand beside of the commander.

"I am Petya Burondukov, Brigadier General with the Pan Pacific Defense Corp and your commanding officer within the confines of this Shatterdome. I will not tolerate your acting like any part of the preceding statement is fallible or anything short of absolute. Is this perfectly clear?!" Petya shouted, making sure to lean into Ren's face as he asked the question. She shouted back in the affirmative along with the others, which seemed to ease the blood pulsing through his forehead as the veins sank back to their default position. "Excellent. You may have heard from Miss Thompson already, but the maintenance bay is under lock down due to a sports related disagreement. No one is allowed in besides key personnel, a title none of you can claim until the Breach shits out another rabid beast for us to put down, until further notice. Lunch will be served within the hour. Unpack and settle in until then. Your training will continue, or rather will truly begin, tomorrow morning. Miss Fukatawa has assured me, along with many others, that the simulations she has personally prepared will make those Kaiju you faced in the academy look like men in rubber suits. I suggest resting in preparation for this," Petya asserted, his gaze scanning the rangers as he spoke.

The man was well built, former combat troop if Sasha had to guess, wearing a long drab green coat over a black dress uniform. Every gold button and medal was shined and the reflection of the lights coming off of his black boots could blind someone. He was the kind of guy that didn't just do everything by the book, he read it cover to cover every night before bed. She'd known people back in the police force like that; there were betting pools over when they'd have a stroke. They made good commanders though, provided they knew how to read a situation as well as they could protocol manuals.

"If that's sunken into your thick skulls then you're dismissed. Thompson, you're to come with me and provide an update on the status of the base. Have the teams in the secondary hangars made any more progress?" Petya barked, turning on his heel and walking off to the right.

Samantha let out a sigh before shaking her head, power walking to try to catch up with Petya's long strides. With the commander gone now, everyone but Ren relaxed. She remained stiff even after she dropped her salute, staring ahead with an angry glare, the gaze shifting slowly towards Nikita when he stepped into her peripheral vision.

"Why the hell were you so quiet when I was shoving my foot in my mouth, huh?" She barked before shoving Nikita back. The push made him take a step back but he simply smirked in reply.

"It's not like I knew who that was beforehand either. I think you lucked out though, most guys like that would make you run laps as punishment, right?" Nikita shot back, blocking a left hook from Ren with his forearm before letting out a laugh.

Ren couldn't help but to drop her glare as well now that the embarrassment had time to settle. It would be her luck though that the prison guards got to see her look like an idiot. She looked back at Sasha and Aleksis, scowling when she noticed the two were smiling at her. The one Aleksis was giving was a bit more innocent, probably thought the brother and sister rough housing was cute, but there was a certain air of superiority in Sasha's and it pissed Ren off. The two locked eyes, Sasha's smirk fading as she stared down the convict, scowling back with the same intensity Ren was managing. Sasha had no idea what the hell was wrong with this savage, but having an enemy didn't bother her in the slightest. Ren broke the gaze first in order to spit off to the side before replacing her glare with a smug looking smirk.

"Just fucking remember that those mother fuckers pop out of that hole one at a time. As long as one jaeger is capable of going out there to beat its shit in it don't matter much if a pilot can't respond due to a fucking boot up her ass. I'm watching you and if you're smart you better fucking watch me," Ren said through gritted teeth, elbowing past Sasha as she dug into her coat and pulled out a lighter and a pack of cigarettes. Nikita watched her storm off before sighing in annoyance.

"I'd say she's not normally like this but she kind of is. I'm terribly sorry," He said calmly, jumping a little when Aleksis placed a hand on his shoulder but relaxing when he saw the big guy was smiling.

"We can't pick family, just live with them, eh?" He said before giving Nikita a slap on the back. "It's not much of a leap to think the same woman locked up for killing four people has issues. We take no offense. Besides, I think Sasha kind of likes having enemies to fight with. Keeps her strong," Aleksis chuckled, letting out a laugh before Sasha playfully elbowed him in the side.

Nikita smiled back and nodded at the couple as thanks for their understanding. All of this was new for Nikita, from all the physical training to being with his sister again after so many years, he was no longer in total control of everything that happened around him and it was starting to annoy him. Then there were the Cherno Alpha pilots whom Nikita had honestly written off as guards with a strong sense of duty. Though he hadn't dropped his guard around them yet, he was getting the feeling that they wouldn't shove a knife in his side if he were to. It was an odd feeling when most of your life was spent dealing with criminal organizations. He had to plan his every move carefully to keep himself alive, even things as simple as going out for coffee. It was refreshing to meet people like this.

The introspection session Nikita was having was interrupted though when he heard Ren scream profanities somewhere behind him followed by the sounds of chanting. Nikita had internalized the sound and rhythm from his earlier years of schooling when Ren was still in his class. He did not need to make out the words to know they were shouting '_Fight!_' over and over, which meant someone had not gotten out of Ren's way. With a sigh Nikita looked to his fellow pilots and silently excused himself before running off towards the chaos.

Sasha crossed her arms and smirked as she watched Nikita go, noting out of the corner of her eye that some of the security personnel were also heading towards the fight. This was the only thing that kept her from breaking the fight up herself and allowing herself to pass up an excuse to shove her boot up the brutish woman's ass. Looking back to Aleksis, she couldn't help but smile as she saw the goofy grin on his own face before giving him another elbow to the side.

"You may like them but that's not going to stop me from kicking her ass if she talks to me like that again. If you weren't here I would have punched the words back down her throat," Sasha chuckled, not one to hold on to her anger more than she needed to. She'd learned how to swallow those kinds of emotions long ago.

Aleksis simply laughed before sweeping Sasha off of her feet, cradling her in his arms like a babe before squeezing her tight and kissing her lightly on the lips. It had been a while since they weren't being watched and he had been waiting for the chance to sweep his girlfriend off of her feet.

"You probably will end up doing so regardless, but it is still best to get along while we are in this place. Maybe we can all be friends and focus on pommeling Kaiju like we're supposed to, huh?" Aleksis shot back, giving Sasha another squeeze.

At first Sasha had hated Aleksis for doing this to her, making her feel like some toy, but after drifting with him and training with him she'd gotten more comfortable with the feeling of vulnerability, replacing it with a sense of safety. Aleksis was one of the few people she could really laugh with. She was glad her random game of eenie meanie miney mo had landed on him in the break room of the prison what felt like a lifetime ago. Looking back at him she gave a fake scoff before he set her back down on her feet, stepping forward just to look at him over her shoulder, her shoulder length hair concealing her eyes but not her smirk.

"There are other things besides friends I'd like to make here," she said, saying it slowly before resuming her walk, no longer looking back. She did not need to. Aleksis might as well be on a leash after a comment like that.


	3. Chapter 3

I do not own anything you might recognize.

* * *

The morning found the Kotkos despite their attempts to hide. Even with her time in the military, Ren had difficulty getting up before noon and Nikita had overestimated his ability to function at five in the morning when he'd spent most of the night on his laptop. Ren had eventually forcefully picked him up out of his chair and thrown him onto his bed, the clacking of the keys driving her insane as she tried to sleep. It was a taste of childhood for the both of them. Nikita eased his eyes open as the alarm blared, grumbling something under his breath as his hand slowly slinked out of the covers to address the noise that had awoken him. It felt like the gravity outside of his bed had doubled, the simple act taking an exhausting amount of effort as his eyes struggled to stay open.

"GOD FUCKING DAMMIT!"

The sudden outburst startled Nikita's eyes back open in time to see Ren leaping out of her bed on the other side of the room. They did not share nightstands or alarm clocks, and Ren had long since silenced her own. Before he registered that she had even moved, Ren had the alarm clock in her grip and was smashing it against the smooth wood of the nightstand several times before attempting to throw it across the room only for the power chord to snap it back, unplugging itself in the process. Nikita silently watched this, looking from Ren to his alarm clock which now lay on the floor and sighed. He would need a new one; he doubted it could function with that many wires visible from the outside.

"Ren, please-" was all Nikita had time to say before Ren grabbed the bottom of his mattress and violently flipped it, and Nikita, onto the floor.

"Shut up! Fucking hell! I gave you ten mother fucking minutes to deal with that goddamn clock and it pissed me the hell off you lazy piece of shit! I'm not doing this every fucking morning right before Burundukov dangles my freedom in front of my face!" Ren screamed before sifting through the blankets to find her brother, yanking his half naked body out of the pile and standing him up beside of her. Nikita was smiling despite being flipped onto the floor and simply looked at his sister. Albeit she was angrier now than she was then, this played out like many a morning before they had school, but where once Ren had long hair kept in a braid, she now had a short pixie cut which always looked like she'd just rolled out of bed. Where once she'd worn a nightgown covered in teddy bears, she now wore a dark tank top to show off her tattoos and gray sweatpants. She also didn't have the light scars scattered here and there from all the fighting she'd done.

"The fuck are you looking at?" Ren spat, though she shifted away at the same time and crossed her arms. Nikita couldn't stifle a chuckle before pointing at her shoulders.

"Just admiring the tattoos. Haven't seen the star you got on your shoulders yet because of the prison and ranger uniforms. Vera give you that one too?"

"Shut up. We can catch up at breakfast or something. Just get your ass moving before we're late to morning training." With that said, Ren stomped off towards the showers, leaving Nikita to clean up his bed. A smirk adorned his face as he eased the mattress back onto the bed frame. '_Stars,_' He thought to himself, '_if I remember right, those mean that she won't kneel to anyone else. Fitting.' _It made him wonder if their father would get a kick out of it as well. He thought it went well with the tattoo Ren had of the Russian saint on her back. His train of thought was interrupted when he noticed a large set of hands reach in front of him and grab the sheet for his bed; it seemed Aleksis had let himself in. The big guy was smirking as he gently tucked in the cloth, humming gently to himself as he focused on what his hands were doing. The sight threw Nikita for a loop and rather than help, he found himself crossing his arms and shifting his left leg back, unconsciously pointing his shoulder at the man now.

"I take it you heard all of that then?" Nikita muttered, jumping a bit at the deep laugh that came from Aleksis' throat.

"I may not have known her personally, but I did guard her in prison for several years. Several inches of steel can't hide her voice when she is upset. I'm just glad there was less blood this time."

Now it was Nikita's turn to laugh as he stepped forward and helped tuck the sheets in at the foot of the bed. "As am I. She'd never hurt me on purpose, but friend and foe are hard to distinguish when you're truly angry." Nikita mused, looking briefly over his shoulder to glance into the Cherno team's room but raising an eyebrow when he found no one else moving about within. "Where is your partner, Sasha? I think this is the first time I've seen you without her."

"She's taking a shower. She left a little after the yelling started in here." Aleksis replied, hesitating in spreading out the comforter onto the bed, looking up at Nikita. "Where did you say your sister had gone?"

One thing Ren never minded about getting up early was taking a nice hot shower first thing. The feeling of the hot water on her skin was ecstasy and a rare luxury in prison. For the first time in years she felt like she could let her hair down (so to speak) and unwind. Hell, she was one of the few people in this section of the living quarters that had to be up this early, so she'd have practically no one to share the facilities with. That thought put the early wake up time in a bit more of a positive light in Ren's mind. She thought this right up until she heard singing. It wasn't very loud, barely audible above the running water, but you don't survive in prison without paying attention to odd noises. Being that this wasn't Prison Camp 34 and the odds of her getting stabbed with a toothbrush were fairly low, Ren went against her usual instinct and turned off her own shower head in the lineup and looked around a bit. The showers were set up so that there was a wall of about Aleksis' height dividing the room nearly in half, holding a line of shower heads on either side, but there were also more traditional stalls along the sides of the room for the more shy bathers. Following the direction of the sound with her hair still full of shampoo foam, Ren realized a curtain on the right side of the room was closed. The singing was clearer now but Ren couldn't place the voice. Who the fuck was up this early and in the women's showers singing some slow, sad lullaby? Rather than wait to find out, Ren walked up to the stall and eased back the curtain. The singing came to a sudden stop as a very surprised Sasha turned around with a reared back fist to greet her peeping tom. She stopped for a moment upon seeing that it was Ren, relieved that it wasn't some pervert, but realizing Ren had been spying on her pissed her off all over again, which prompted the fist to fly anyway. Ren barely managed to deflect the blow with her forearm and hopped back, slipping onto her ass due to the suds Sasha had been rinsing off before she was interrupted.

"What in God's name do you think you're doing?! I didn't pull the curtain closed to entice company you idiot!" Sasha exclaimed, crossing an arm over her chest as she scrambled to wrap a towel around herself. Being the master of tact that she was Ren couldn't stifle her laughter at seeing Sasha, the only female guard for C Block and the reason that no one who'd been there more than a month grabbed their bars anymore, was this easily embarrassed. Ren eased herself back up as Sasha scrambled to cover up, the former inmate crossing her arms and widening her stance as a smirk grew on her face. The two women had similar builds as far as musculature, but where Sasha was taller, Ren was a bit more endowed and so as a sign of dominance she pointed her advantages at the former guard.

"I was just wondering who the fuck was trying to drown a cat in here, but it turns out you were just washing Aleksis' sweat out of your mouth. Hope you brought some mouthwash to finish the job," Ren taunted, scoffing and tilting her head forward slightly, glaring at Sasha and daring her to move. Sasha merely sighed as she finally fixed a towel around herself, looking back to Ren now with a calm, even disinterested expression on her face.

"This isn't prison you know. You don't _have_ to pick a fight with me just because you believe I'm stronger than you," Sasha replied, enunciating her words and standing her ground. This game had lost its appeal back in the prison and Sasha was anxious for it to end. She was here to kill Kaiju, not get into a pissing contest with a naked psychopath. Ren's nostrils flared at Sasha's retort, her fists clenching as she unfolded her arms and stomped towards Sasha, jabbing her index and middle finger into her shoulder.

"You calling me weak you fucking cunt?" Ren spat, now in Sasha's face though the blonde woman didn't look too concerned. She looked Ren in the eyes for a moment before tilting her head up and made a show of sniffing the air before smirking.

"Your shampoo smells nice."

Ren's face turned red before she raised her fist, though as soon as she moved so did Sasha. Rather than swing her fists around, she kicked Ren's ankle out from under her and let the wet tile beneath them drag the woman down before the fist got the chance to move forward. Sasha then smiled before stepping past Ren, having managed to wash herself before her interruption, but stopped after about ten paces to look back and saw Ren crouched on a knee as she tried to hide her frustrations. Being well versed in prison culture herself, Sasha couldn't help herself.

"I also like the star tattoos. Try not to be late for training," Sasha purred before leaving the room. Ren howled in anger before slamming her fists down onto the floor. Sasha almost smirked again at the sound as it carried through the hallway. She knew that, while their altercation had been amusing for the moment, it was only going to exasperate whatever problem Ren seemed to have with her. Hopefully the savage would have enough control to wait until after they were dismissed to try this again.

* * *

The training room was nothing like what had been at the Jaeger Academy; it was less a simulation room and more a combination of three rooms. One was a more basic set up of the Local Command Center, or LOCCENT, that each Shatterdome used to monitor jaegers during deployment as well as monitor the breach and the sensors feeding them information on the Kaiju that crawled out of it. Another of the rooms and the only other one with a thus far apparent purpose was a recreation of a Conn-Pod complete with the mechanical rigging pilots were attached to while in jaegers to control them. There were even technicians at the ready to assist with suit up. Sasha, Aleksis, Nikita, and Ren all stood in the Pod room looking around in awe at everything. It was the second time any of them had seen the heart of a jaeger outside of simulations, only experiencing the sights previously when doing final calibrations in Cherno Alpha and Bravo Zver to make pilot adjustments and fine tune the programming on the Jaeger AI's. The jaegers had been activated with limited functionality, Burundukov boasting that the neural load was only a third of what it would become during a drop. That still felt like twice what they'd dealt with during simulations at the academy. The sightseeing for the pilots came to an abrupt stop when Samantha's voice sprang to life from the speakers in the corners of the room.

"Morning! I can't help but notice you admiring the set up in the simulation room. Remember how I said I was head of the technicians and wiring for the Shatterdome _'among other things'_? Well, this is mainly the other things. Fun fact for you guys, due to my diligence and management skills, as well as a lot of yelling, my team and I got this built a month ahead of schedule. Impressive right?"

Her voice seemed supernaturally happy and chipper to Ren and Nikita for it being six in the morning. Neither believed it would bode well for them in the future. Morning people rarely did.

"Alright, our fearless leader is on the way here so I'm going to go ahead and have those techies suit you up. You may remember these little outfits as being your personal gear for your jaegers. '_But Samantha, Queen of All She Surveys, we've never needed this gear for drifting in simulations before_' I hear you cry. Well that's because the room you're in isn't just designed to look like a conn pod, it _is_ one. Neat right? Now instead of tedious simulations you'll have grueling physical training thrown in with the strategical pop-quizzes Minori has thought up for you. We got any volunteers for going first?" Sam beamed, enjoying this way too much for it to be healthy. At the last question, however, Ren immediately replied by stepping forward and pounding her chest one time with her fist, getting a chuckle out of Sam. "Enthusiasm. Enjoy that while you can… Alright, I'll load the Bravo set up and Minori here will begin preparing your scaly opponent. Any advice for Fuzzyface?" Sam asked, turning in her seat within the training room command center to look at Minori. She was still dressed in her doctor's coat and black blouse and pants, though today she wore her hair in a long ponytail held up with a pink ribbon which made it appear as though the hair were highlighted. The scientist couldn't hold back a chuckle at Sam's name for the Kaiju she'd designed for Bravo's first simulated drop before gently reaching out to take hold of the microphone Sam had been using.

"I had a lot of fun with its design. That's all I can say without ruining the training experience for you. I will be talking to you during the drops as well, simulated or not. I will say, though, that you four may have been a bit of an inspiration for me," Minori said sweetly, but paused as she realized something, "I don't mean how the Kaiju look!"

Samantha could be heard laughing in the background until she reclaimed the microphone from her friend. "Well you heard her, she thinks you're monsters. Better keep outta Tokyo then, I hear your king likes to hang out there." Sam's laughter was cut off by the sound of her chair's wheels squeaking as she leaped from her chair to avoid Minori taking a playful swing at her. None of the four pilots could resist a smile as they listened.

Not long after Sam and Minori calmed down and got back to work, Burundukov strode into the command center and began looking over all of the monitors on the wall. He was pleased to see one of the jaeger teams suiting up and that the appropriate programs were already primed for the simulation. It seemed even Ms. Thompson could get her work done when she took an interest in it. Upon seeing the commanding officer enter the room, Sam immediately announced it to the others, leaving her smart-ass remarks out of it this time. His mood was still soured from the engineering wing riots yesterday. The foremen of the two teams were ordered to wash the jaegers from head to toe with brushes and rags as punishment. He gave Sam permission to take a bucket of mud out to the floor to ensure they were not bored. A recently emptied bucket sat beside her in the control room, which managed to lift his mood a little bit. Once he was satisfied that everyone was doing what they were supposed to, he stepped forward so that he loomed over Samantha and Minori. Noticing that Ren and Nikita had finished suiting up and were stepping up to the rigging to begin the Brigadier General looked down at Sam.

"Instruct First Lieutenant Zolnerowich and First Lieutenant Kaidonovsky to report to this room for observation. Once they are here initiate Drifting so that we may get started," Burundukov asserted before Samantha began chuckling to herself. Raising an eyebrow in question the man looked back to the monitors to see that the Cherno team had already began leaving the room and Petya realized that the microphone did not function as a PA system where a button needed to be pressed to be heard.

"Sir, the microphone is voice activated when it's on. You can just bark your orders like normal," Sam chuckled, waving to Sasha and Aleksis as they entered the door at the back of the room. The room was shaped a lot like a large hallway with all of the equipment at the end. Where the real LOCCENT had a wall of glass in order to observe the rest of the Shatterdome, this smaller one had a wall made up of display monitors, all seemingly of uniform size though they had the ability to share and spread images across one another. This did not count the monitors embedded in the actual computers and equipment that operated the simulations and monitored the neural handshake during a drift. Combine this with the black floors and walls and it looked like you were walking into God's office. Sasha could see now why Sam had been bragging about it.

"Alrighty, Second Lieutenant Ren Kotko and First Lieutenant Nikita Kotko are strapped in and ready to go. Nonessential personnel are to clear the training room now. Drift initiating in three… two… one…"

* * *

For as long as Ren lived she would never forget the sensation of drifting with someone, the feeling of your consciousness expanding and eventually overlapping with someone else's. Your sense of self warped during a drift. I became We. Ren's aggression became Nikita's, and Nikita's tactical thinking became Ren's. They were Bravo Zver now, just two halves of that jaeger's brain. Ren and Nikita focused on their breathing as the neural handshake initiated, not latching on to any of the memories floating through their minds. Things as recent as Ren trying to pick a fight with Sasha in the showers played out in Nikita's head while Ren could see Nikita as a child looking out a window before their father yelled for him to resume his studies. Everything faded as quickly as it came, and the flashes of memory always stopped once the handshake was formed. As soon as they felt the click of that connection solidifying, the siblings opened their eyes and dropped into a fighting stance with their fists up like a boxer, but slid their left leg back a bit so that they pointed their right shoulder forward slightly. This was the stance Ren had been trained to use, and Nikita could do it perfectly purely from his sister's memory. Samantha smiled in the control room as she hit a few keys to launch the simulation, loading it up through the drift. Everything would feel real, as it had in the academy, but there was a key difference between the academy and this simulation; the academy watered down the Kaiju so that rookies could take them on without getting slaughtered, so that they could learn what the hell they were doing. Now that Ren and Nikita knew what they were doing, they were getting as close to the real thing as Minori could get them. Since this was day one they were getting an easier Kaiju, but only because Minori was designing several that made Trespasser look like a lost pet rather than a giant monster. Fighting them now would make any sane person quit the program.

"Simulation initiating. You'll be starting out on the ten mile mark in Russian waters, same as any drop you'd do in the future. Good luck and Nikita, try not to get puke all over those nice clean floors, okay?" Sam said, getting unintelligible grumbling from her victim in response. Seconds later and the room the siblings were in faded from view and was slowly replaced by the ocean during a howling storm. They could smell the salty air sneaking its way into the conn-pod and hear the thunder and rolling waves crashing up against Bravo's legs. They could see simulated monitors displaying visual feeds both from the cameras on Bravo as well as the helicopters struggling to stay airborne in the storm. "Kaiju is heading your way from northeast. Prepare to intercept and eliminate," Samantha advised, with the Kotkos nodding before turning to the left and taking a step forward. Nikita nearly lost his neural grip when he felt the resistance from the pod's rigging. He was going to be sore after this. Ren scoffed and looked at her brother at his worrying.

"We have another simulation before dinner. You're going to have to grow a dick if you expect to keep my pace baby brother," Ren teased, smiling when Nikita stuck his tongue out at her. Not because she thought the retort was cute, but because there was now a wet spot on the glass visor of Nikita's helmet and there was nothing he could do to get rid of it until the fight was over. Served him right for being a pansy. Taking a glance down at their instruments, Ren could see their radar had picked up a large mass moving towards them from straight ahead. Since they couldn't see a mountain moving in the distance, she supposed that meant it was swimming towards them. The water came up to Bravo's thighs which meant the Kaiju probably couldn't do a lot of damage fighting while swimming. Not with a name like Fuzzyface. So rather than go fishing Bravo stood its ground, resuming the stance it had taken when Ren and Nikita first drifted. Now they just had to wait for this bastard to get here and stand to fight.

Nikita kept an eye on their instruments while Ren scanned the horizon, waiting for any sign of movement. The sky was lit up with a streak of lightning in the distance, aiding in her search for a brief second. A split second before the sound of thunder hit them, however, Ren could see it. A silhouette of a beast from hell rose from the sea slowly, its presence announced by the rumbling skies. It reminded Nikita of what Lovecraft must have had wet dreams about. Ren smirked at the thought. Not long after the thing's head cleared the waves Bravo began moving again, much faster than it had before in order to take the initiative in this fight. Its back had finally straightened when Bravo got within striking distance and upon seeing the Kaiju at full height, Ren and Nikita hesitated. The Kaiju they had been fighting had been category ones according to that new scale they'd implemented not that long ago. This bastard looked like a category three. No Kaiju had been this big before. Fuzzyface at full height was looking down its nose into the eyes of Bravo Zver. Its skin was leathery and gray, blue streaks looking like cracks leaking the beast's power lined its armored back. Its face was large and round, an elongated snout like that of a wolf or bear with snarling teeth, but this wasn't what it used to attack. The beast was bipedal but the legs had to be short in order to be hidden as they were beneath the waves. Its arms were the opposite, massive with long sharp claws at the ends. The size reminded her of that comic book character Wolverine. They weren't used for gripping but for killing, and they were swinging right for Bravo's head.

"SHIT!" The siblings shouted as they jumped back to get out of range of the strike, Ren growling quite loudly as she heard Sam's laughter in her ear. There was no way they could lose this fight now. Bravo stood its ground as the beast roared at them, lurching forward and using its forearms to charge at them. Bravo charged as well, raising its fists as spikes erupted out of the knuckles and locked into place, giving it in essence a set of brass knuckles. They'd need them in order to damage its thick hide. The beast was powerful but slow, Bravo able to close the gap before it could rear back for another swipe which gave the jaeger a free shot. Rearing back as the Kaiju stood again, the left fist flew through the air and hit home on the beast's shoulder, the right hand rearing back to deliver an uppercut to the bicep the Kaiju was about to use. The Kaiju roared in pain as dots along the arm began leaking the blue goo that was their blood. They wouldn't cripple the arm, but it would hurt the Kaiju every time it struck with this arm, which gave Bravo more of an advantage in mobility. The combo came with a price, the siblings focusing so much on the arms that they forgot about the head, which lunged in and took hold of Bravo's left shoulder. Alarms began blaring in the cockpit about the damage but the pilots could feel the pain through the drift. Nikita cried out from it while Ren grit her teeth and snarled back at the beast. Bravo's left fist reached out to take hold of the beast's throat and tightened its grip as much as the hydraulics would allow, the left hand closing into a fist again but they hesitated before throwing a punch. Ren wanted this to sting.

"Activating claws. Thanks for holding still you piece of shit!" Ren shouted, the fingers in Bravo's free hand folding in at the first joint past the knuckle, locking into place so that they nearly looked like a paw. A split second after the hydraulic hiss signified the fingers were secured, blades slid out from the folded joints to replace the fingers with what looked like knife blades, completing the werewolf look with a functional set of claws. The process only took five seconds, with Ren laughing like a maniac before plunging the claws straight into the leathery neck of Fuzzyface. The blades weren't as long as the claws on the Kaiju, but at this range they didn't have to be. The Kaiju was still munching on Bravo's shoulder, trying to rip it off to loosen the grip on its throat while also preparing its good arm for another swipe. It barely had time to register the sight of the blades coming for its head, the grip on its throat loosening as Bravo let go only for the claws to take its place. It stabbed upward with enough force to fully close the Kaiju's mouth, resulting in Bravo's left arm being functionally useless. The pain almost caused Nikita to pass out, being unused to the sensation in his previous line of work, but Ren was all too familiar with it. She could fight the urge to crumple into a ball and cry, instead screaming as she jerked her right arm to the side and slit the Kaiju's throat. The pain was enough to halt the beast's arm before it picked up steam, choking as blood began gushing from the wound and spraying from its mouth as it coughed. Not taking any chances, Bravo swung again, the claws stabbing into the wound to deepen it and jerked its wrist to shred the meat inside before jerking the elbow again. Nikita and Ren knew they wouldn't survive a counter attack with one arm to defend with. Fuzzyface was motionless for what felt like an eternity, blood flowing from the wound in its neck before it slowly tilted forward and fell face first back into the sea. Ren smiled as she watched the ocean around them begin to glow blue with the blood of the fallen Kaiju and turned to look at her brother.

"Hell yeah! Category three dropped like a fucking bitch! You see that shit Nikita?" Ren shouted, still beaming as the simulation around them faded back into reality and technicians swarmed them to get them out of the harnesses. As soon as the two were on their feet, Nikita fell to his ass and began rubbing his calves, wincing because his arms were so sore. The academy simulations hadn't prepared him for the resistance the real harnesses would have. Ren was breathing a bit heavier than normal but seemed otherwise unaffected, laughing at her brother before reaching out a hand to help him back up.

"I would not celebrate if I were the two of you," Burundukov's voice boomed from the speakers, "The damage sustained by your jaeger from that one drop would take months to repair. The costs for materials alone could feed every man, woman, and child in Moscow for a year! Bravo Zver may be an extension of your consciousness on the field, but that Jaeger is mine, as was that arm you lost. You will strive to preserve my jaeger on your next drop or I will fire every mechanic on the Bravo team to give you proper incentive. Is this clear?" Petya shouted, veins visible on the sides of his neck as he yelled into the microphone. Ren immediately saluted and replied in the affirmative, but Nikita couldn't get his arm lifted in time.

"First Lieutenant Nikita, if one drop is enough to force your body into insubordination then you have no business in one of my jaegers. I have no use for weakness in my Shatterdome. Second Lieutenant Renata Kotko I suggest you get your partner into shape by tomorrow or the training for your team will double. Any objections?" Petya spat, with Ren gritting her teeth as she held back her anger.

"Only that double is not enough, sir. Permission to raise the stakes to triple!" She called back, which threw Petya for a loop. Sam's eyes widened in surprise as she looked from the monitors to her commander and watched as the red faded from his face. He had not been expecting that. It prompted Sam to smile.

"Permission granted. Report to my location so that team Cherno Alpha may thrill us with their performance."

With that Ren dropped her salute and snarled as she looked to Nikita before crouching down long enough to get her shoulder beneath his chest and lifted him off of the ground. She held him steady with a hand holding the back of his head and one gripping his pants before slowly walking towards the door. "Come on you pussy. I'm only doing this once so you'd better get your shit together. Got that?" Ren spat, glaring at her brother as she moved. They didn't pass Sasha and Aleksis until they were both in the hallway that connected the smaller command center from the simulation room. Ren, of course, shot Sasha a spiteful look but the former guard simply scoffed.

"Forgive me if I'm not that intimidated. I've seen you fight," Sasha said with a smirk, getting an elbow to the side from Aleksis immediately after but the damage had been done. Ren practically threw Nikita off of her shoulder before leaping at Sasha but her brother had grabbed her by the ankle to keep her out of striking distance. Ren snarled and looked down at Nikita but the look softened once she saw the stern look in his eyes.

"Sister, if you go through with that Petya will send you back to that prison. I'm not losing you again," Nikita whispered gently. The words seemed to penetrate Ren's anger and her features began to soften again, returning to neutral once Sasha and Aleksis vanished into the simulation room. The look in Nikita's eyes remained even as he stood on his shaky legs, putting an arm gently around his sister's shoulder to lead her into the control room. "What's your problem with her anyway?" Nikita murmured, glancing at Ren as he braced himself, but to his surprise she did not yell or hit him. Her eyes were distant now, staring into the past with an unfeeling gaze. When Ren did not speak after a few moments Nikita squeezed her shoulder and drew her in to remind her that he was there. "You don't have to answer. Let's go, okay?" Nikita cooed, receiving a slap for his troubles.

"Fuck you, acting like you're my goddamn dad or something. The last fucking person I need pretending to be something like that is you, you son of a bitch. Now get your ass in there before I get mad," Ren spat before shoving Nikita ahead of her. Nikita stumbled forward, unable to see the line of moisture falling down Ren's cheek. She quickly wiped away the evidence and pressed on as she always had.

* * *

Having witnessed Bravo's battle from the control room, the Cherno team were not warned or talked through the procedures as Ren and Nikita had been. At this point, if they hadn't been paying attention then it was their own fault if they failed. Based on how the fight with Fuzzyface had gone, Minori seemed to have been exploiting the weakness in the jaeger's designs. Aleksis figured this meant the tank that was Cherno would have a more agile opponent. They'd have to be cautious. Glancing over at Sasha as the last techie finished tightening some screws to secure the pilots, Aleksis saw a familiar fire in her eyes. Times like this were when his partner felt the most alive. She trained diligently for these moments, instincts honed by years in Russia's elite police squads called OMON. Aleksis hadn't met her during those years but he liked imagining her in uniform before they hit the drift. He believed the look on her face was the one she wore before kicking a door in and shoving a shotgun in a suspect's chest. The look suited her very well.

"What? Something on my face?"

The question startled Aleksis, having not realized Sasha had been glancing at him out of the corner of her eye. He simply smiled in response before looking straight ahead. "I was just thinking how beautiful you look when you've got your war face on. I didn't mean to stare," He said calmly, still smiling warmly as the visor of his helmet slid down to cover the top half of his face. Sasha was glad for it when her visor followed suit, hiding the rosy glow of her cheeks. The compliment had caught her off guard. Aleksis would have to be punished once this was over… maybe a few times to make sure he learned his lesson.

"Okay, initiating Drift. Just like with the last drop I'll be keeping minimal contact so you guys are mostly on your own. Petya's orders so he can see for himself what your natural instincts are. Minori also wants me to tell you that she thinks you two make a cute couple," Sam said as she tried to hold back the giggles at the last bit.

"What?! No, I said no such… not that you two aren't good together but… Sam!" Minori blurted, giving up on words as she lightly punched Sam, who had been laughing in the background, in the shoulder. The last thing the couple heard before drifting was Petya's voice demanding some professionalism out of his professionals. Neither knew how the mechanics of drifting worked exactly but they'd been told that their compatibility was one of the highest of any ranger teams to come out of the academy. Aleksis took this to mean he and Sasha were simply good at fighting together but it struck some deeper chords within Sasha. The intimacy scared her. She felt so at ease in Aleksis' mind and that vulnerability made her think danger was imminent. She had to be strong, always on edge or she would get hurt… but Aleksis made her feel things. She was more than a warrior to him. She wasn't sure she could be.

As reality warped to become that same hellish ocean that Bravo Zver had stood in, Sasha and Aleksis immediately began looking about to get their bearings. Aleksis checked Cherno's instruments through the display in his visor plate as Sasha scanned the horizon to make a mental map of their surroundings. They were in the open ocean with no ice to be cautious of but also with no signs of the enemy.

"Samantha, any sign of the Kaiju? I dislike walking into fights blind like an idiot," Sasha called as she smirked, receiving another elbow and frown from Aleksis. Sasha felt bad for a brief moment but the sound of Ren screaming in the background brought the smile back to her face.

"Codename Legaconda is approaching from the west. Roughly ten kilometers out. Also, as entertaining as it is I think it might be a good idea to back off of your fellow ranger. The only thing stopping her from running into the sim room is a few unlocked doors and about ten easily frightened scientists. Just saying, you know, wait till your hands and feet aren't strapped down to poke the psycho with a stick," Sam replied, whispering the last part. She didn't want to give Ren any ideas. Sasha replied with a nod before reaching out to activate their radar. She'd have to remember to have some more fun with Ren's psyche later. Aleksis simply sighed in protest.

"Eight Kilometers and closing. Do the helicopters have visuals yet?" Sasha asked as Cherno turned to face the west, fingers wriggling slightly before closing into fists. The breathing of both pilots slowed as they cleared their minds. It was what they'd been trained to do before a fight. Aleksis by his alcoholic uncle, Sasha by military instructors, both by a veteran pilot at the academy. Nothing else existed outside of the task at hand and their minds were to be clear of distractions. Distractions lost fights. They were as much an enemy as any Kaiju.

"Helicopters do not have visuals but are tracking it via sonar so head for the lights. Just like with Fuzzyface you'll be looking at a high category Kaiju, not a Trespasser or Karloff clone like in the academy, so prepare yourselves for anything. Minori was told to be very creative with these things," Samantha called back. Neither pilot responded verbally, but Cherno did begin walking towards the lights in the distance. You could only tell that they came from helicopters during the lightning strikes that illuminated the sky. Otherwise it simply looked like spotlights like you might find outside of a newly opened restaurant during its grand opening. It only took a minute and a half of walking before the Kaiju decided to reveal itself. Cherno stopped and watched as Legaconda sprang from the waves, the eyes of the pilots widening as they realized what the basis for this Kaiju was… a Centipede. It had no arms but made up for it with giant serrated mandibles and thick legs which came to sharp looking points. What worried the pilots the most though was the thick looking plates of armor which lined its back. Some bore spikes while some did not, but they looked as solid as stone. Cherno's fists could break it but not in one punch, which was not a good thing. Legaconda let out a high pitched roar as Sasha and Aleksis studied it, adding in one more bit of knowledge as it darted to the side; it could move much faster than Cherno could turn. Before the jaeger could react to the sudden lunge, the Kaiju had wrapped itself around Cherno and was attacking the head, or would have had Cherno not raised an arm to block the mandibles from reaching the reactor.

"Fuck! Damn this thing is fast!" Sasha shouted before grunting from the effort of holding the Kaiju back. It was strong but it had made one error in its attack strategy by not pinning down Cherno's other arm. Grabbing hold of a leg with the arm keeping the mandibles at bay, Cherno's left hand clenched tightly into a fist before swinging up into the only part of the Kaiju not covered in plates. The crunching sound of the exoskeleton cracking made Samantha cringe even in the control room. Cherno's left fist was covered in blue from the blood oozing from the wound, but as bad as it looked the jaeger had only crippled the legs surrounding the wound. The Kaiju let out a shrill cry as its body cringed in pain, letting go of Cherno and falling back into the raging sea. The strong currents and crashing waves distorted the Kaiju blue as quickly as it rose to the surface and since the Kaiju was not so much tall as it was long, it made tracking the creature visually impossible. Aleksis grunted in annoyance as he brought up sonar, leaving Sasha to shift Cherno into a defensive stance, arms raised as she waited for either the thing to show itself again or Aleksis to point her in the appropriate direction.

"Guys, the Kaiju is hauling ass towards Vladivostok. Might want to hurry up and catch it so you don't fail the simulation," Samantha called over the radio, getting an annoyed growl from Sasha in reply. She had no intention of losing to that woman. Every second it took for Cherno to turn ate at Sasha's psyche and every hesitation it made as it began to run caused her teeth to clench. Aleksis silently watched Sasha as she took command, moving in sync with her as she furiously ran to catch up with their target. It was his first time seeing her lose composure in the field and knowing the cause did little to ease his mind about it. He could feel her pushing everything out of her mind, including him, as she pumped her arms and legs.

"Sasha, love, are you certain you're focused on the right things here?" Aleksis delicately asked as they began to catch up with the Kaiju. Sasha at first simply grunted in response, not taking her eyes off of the sonar blip she was trying to crush.

"Aleksis, I'm so focused on killing this Kaiju I can taste sound. Stop worrying and help me!" She snapped back, yelling the last part as the jaeger stomped down onto the last segment of Legaconda's body, pinning it down under Cherno's massive weight. There were no cries this time to signify the Kaiju's pain but rather the churning of the sea around its head. It gave Cherno a target. Taking another step forward the jaeger lifted its foot out of the sea this time before sending it crashing back down into the waves, snapping the armored shell in half and crushing the exoskeleton beneath them. The waves around them began to glow blue with its blood but before Cherno could attack further, the simulation abruptly changed. The sea calmed and the skies cleared as the storm abruptly ended and the pilots could see the area around them. The coastline was visible now, and as Sasha looked from it to the writhing Kaiju beneath them she could not piece together what the problem was. The Kaiju had not made landfall nor had Cherno Alpha sustained significant damage. Even as the simulation ended and the drift faded away, both pilots were still confused. Figuring as much, Petya silently motioned for Minori to speak up.

"So far the Kaiju have differed greatly in appearance and size, but these are typically obvious things most civilians can tell, if criminally simplified, about these creatures from a glance. I am sure you learned in the academy about Kaiju Blue, yes? It too is a factor in determining what category best fits a Kaiju. Legaconda, though smaller than every previous Kaiju, was a category four based on its toxic blood alone. Your method of execution involved crushing its body, while a wise strategy on most opponents faster than yourself, it also was the bloodiest option you could have chosen. That blood would not have diluted at all before reaching shore, killing all sea life near the coast and infecting any beach going civilians or dockworkers. An outcome the commander has deemed grounds for simulation failure." Minori gently cooed, not excited to give the news to the Cherno team. Petya did not have the same inhibition.

"A little long winded but an excellent summary as to why the plug was pulled Ms. Fukatawa. The only acceptable casualties are for the Kaiju. Technicians, begin unstrapping 1st lieutenants Aleksis Kaidonovsky and Sasha Zolnerowich." Petya sighed, displeased at the performance of both teams but mostly in the haste made by the jaeger academy in spitting out pilots. They were ready to kill a Kaiju, not to wage a war with them.

"Rangers, all four of you will run these simulations again tonight. Each of you will get on your hands and knees in the meantime and beg Ms. Fukatawa to impart her knowledge into your thick skulls so that you will not die the first time you are deployed. My record will not be stained due to your incompetence, nor will Russians die as a result of piss poor piloting skills. Your new goal in life is no longer to survive fighting these Kaiju but to strive to meet my expectations. I promise you that if you do, you will live to see the last Kaiju fall. Am I understood?" Petya stated confidently, glaring through the monitors at Sasha and Aleksis as they saluted in response, nodding slightly as they shouted back in the affirmative in sync with Ren and Nikita. Minori was blushing at the attention she was suddenly getting as she attempted to shrink into her chair. The only thing stopping her was Sam, who'd thrown an arm around her friend and pulled her back into proper posture.

"Huh uh. Not letting you get out of being appreciated just because you're not used to it. Sorry dear." Sam whispered gently before squeezing Minori's shoulder. The scientist's cheeks reddened further but her back remained straight. Sam couldn't help but smile at the sight of her friend's shell of politeness slowly cracking. The exchange was unnoticed by the others in the control room, the Kotkos having been dismissed along with Sasha and Aleksis. Petya was staring at the monitors, screenshots of the simulations Sam had taken while monitoring them. He would need to do research as well if he were going to keep his word. Humans had never waged a war like this… not for millennia at least. The closest thing he could imagine were Neanderthals studying the tusks of mammoths in order to make spears, conquering the raw power of primal beasts with superior intellect. It's why he'd fought tooth and nail to get the best research team his budget would allow. Seeing the Kaiju Minori had designed from sketches in her notebook had validated those decisions.

Burundukov's thoughts were halted when Samantha inched next to him, holding her clipboard out and gently shaking it to get his attention.

"Sir, great speech as usual, but about that simulation tonight…"

* * *

Regardless of her quickened pace it did not take more than a few minutes for Ren to catch up to Sasha in the tunnel which lead to their rooms. Sasha knew without even turning around that the savage would be smirking like she had won and knew this was coming as soon as the simulation ended without a confirmed kill. Sasha did not stop moving but now there was little chance of escape.

"Sasha, my friend and fellow ranger! I couldn't help but notice after all that shit you talked before your simulation that you fucking tanked so hard that Petya pulled the plug on you. If I were a petty person I might be inclined to mock you. After some soul searching on the way here though, I learned that I'm not that petty. No, I'm more of a bitch and I'm going to break your teeth," Ren said, cracking her knuckles as she stared daggers into the back of Sasha's head. Sasha spun around and rolled her shoulders once to limber up and returned the look while sizing her opponent up. Her first thought was the curious lack of Aleksis. Ren probably left Nikita behind so he wouldn't talk her out of this and Aleksis with his bleeding heart had stayed behind to help him out. Sasha was glad for it. If Ren was this committed to a fight then this would be the only way to shut her up. She would be lying if she said she wasn't looking forward to a good fight against this annoying bitch.

Ren moved first, not the primal beast Sasha had foreseen based on that simulated fight but calm and controlled. She started to draw her left fist back like she was preparing for a left hook, but the strike was a feint as Sasha found out when Ren's right fist swung up into her gut. Ren had used the momentum from pulling in her left hand to put more power into the quick jab with the right. Sasha winced from the sudden impact, barely having time to tighten her stomach to avoid having the wind knocked out of her, then lunged forward herself and rammed her forehead into Ren's face. Blood stained Sasha's forehead from the blow from Ren's now busted nose but in the time it took Sasha to form a smug grin, Ren reached out and grabbed Sasha by the back of the head and yanked her forward to return the favor, slamming her forehead into the former guard's face once with enough force to bloody Sasha's nose. She was drawing back for another strike until Aleksis wedged his body between the two. He wrapped his arms around her and hoisted her off of the ground, a stern look in his eyes as he stepped away from Ren.

"No more! Neither of you will be satisfied until the other can't move anymore. I don't know what I was thinking in taking my eyes off of you two!" Aleksis shouted, showing no sign of duress from the struggle Sasha was putting up to free herself. Ren stared at the giant for a few moments, the same look she had given Sasha before the fight had started. She didn't seem fazed by the broken nose nor by the seven foot man telling her to stop. The only thing that kept her from dropkicking his legs out from under him was Nikita putting a hand on her shoulder. Ren snorted heavily before glancing back at her brother, the fire in her eyes dancing wildly as she silently demanded he back the hell off, but as her head turned the glare met a detour which extinguished the flames. Nikita had his phone out and held at Ren's eye level and on the screen was a very angry looking Vera's face. Vera looked to be wearing an apron from what Ren could see, standing outside near a truck.

"Are you out of your goddamn mind, Ren? Two fucking days and you're pulling crap like this when you _know_ they'll throw you back in prison after one fuck-up?" Vera shouted, taking a drag off of her cigarette while she gave Ren a second to respond, though as Ren started to Vera squinted and pulled her phone in closer to her face for a moment. She did not look pleased at what she saw as Aleksis began carrying Sasha off.

"The prison guard? The one that kicked that bastard's ass? _**REALLY?!**_ The hell did she do to you, Ren? What the fuck could she have done in two days to circumvent that and earn herself a busted nose?" Vera shouted, glaring at Ren through the screen like an angry mother. Ren looked off to the side before she said anything, wincing slightly as Nikita reached out with a handkerchief and dabbed gently at Ren's upper lip to try to clean her up a bit. Ren pretended to be distracted by it to avoid answering for a few more seconds.

"I got my reasons I guess. They aren't good ones but they're mine," Ren said calmly as she took possession of the handkerchief and used it to pinch her nose and stop the blood. Her eyes were distant again, a look Vera knew well enough that she calmed down a bit herself.

"I bet. Just remember the day I got out and that promise you made to me. I know you're better than this you dumbass," Vera sighed, taking another drag of her cigarette before a smirk tugged at the corners of her mouth. "At least tell me the other girl didn't come out as pretty as you did," Vera joked, which got a smile out of Ren.

"Bitch, that was the case before I started swinging."

* * *

Thanks for reading! Feedback is always appreciated!


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